


dulcis aeternum, as long as i'm with you

by pantalaimon



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Fungus and Wagons, Original Work
Genre: Bards, Blood, Blood Drinking, Blood and Injury, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Dungeons & Dragons Campaign, Dungeons & Dragons Character Backstory, Established Relationship, Healthy Relationships, M/M, Moral Dilemmas, Other, Revenge, Roleplaying Character, Vampire Slayer(s), Vampires, a few party members nearly die but thats par for the course, and contemplates what mortality means to her, and we all had a lot of fun, automatons, basically this is a written version of the last session of my dnd campaign, because it was so incredibly sexy and good, jeanne gets revenge on her dad, nonbinary character written by a nonbinary author, please read this i explain the backstory so u dont have to know the campaign
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:49:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26918389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pantalaimon/pseuds/pantalaimon
Summary: Jeanne Davignon is about to storm her childhood home and murder her monstrous father. On the brink of revenge, she contemplates mortality, and asks if it is too late to change her mind.
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character
Kudos: 1





	dulcis aeternum, as long as i'm with you

**Author's Note:**

> This is a (loose) novelization of my DND 5e campaign, Fungus and Wagons! I will probably write more about them in the future, but this session was so good that I had to immortalize it. For those of you unfamiliar, here is a brief explanation and character rundown.
> 
> Jeanne (she/her) is a vampire spawn rogue, recently ostracized from the party because she killed an innocent woman and drained her blood, and now she looks for a way to lift the vampiric curse from herself.
> 
> Sovya (they/them) is a clockwork automaton cleric, in the beginnings of a relationship with Jeanne and figuring out their own humanity and feelings.
> 
> Atticus (he/him) is a human fighter, who was recently reunited with his own family and acts as the party Dad.
> 
> Kayory (he/him) is a satyr bard, who was the one who originally asked Jeanne to leave the party, and the character who is most uncomfortable with senseless violence.
> 
> Ashes (he/him) is a tiefling ranger in a relationship with Kayory. He travels with the party after his general store/home burned down in an attack by a cult.
> 
> Barnaby (he/him) is a half elf ranger who is traveling with the party after his noble parents cut him off with no money. He is a snappy little gayboy who owns a bloodthirsty horse named Willoughby. 
> 
> Elena and Angelica (she/her) are vampiric sisters, turned by the same Vampire and raised in the same household as Jeanne. They also fight to kill their father and lift the curse on themselves.

The morning dawns bright and cold. The City of Drown is silent and somber as the group makes their way through the empty streets. Jeanne pulls her cloak tighter around her, ever wary of the rising sun. She thinks about the plan as she walks, barely noticing the whispered conversation around her. In theory, the plan is simple. Kill the Duke, end the curse. Kill an all powerful vampire controlling half the continent, and she could be mortal again. They all could.

Jeanne looks up at her sisters as they scurry through the streets. Sisters by name rather than blood, they had all been taken as young girls, raised to serve the Duke and transformed when the time was right. Jeanne shudders as she relives the memory again, over eighty years ago but still fresh in her mind. Eighty years of a curse that had taken her life away from her, turned her into nothing more than a thief in the night. And now, a way to change that. A way for this land to heal itself, and for her and all her sisters to live the lives that had been taken from them.

And all they had to do was win a fight against an all powerful ancient Vampire. Jeanne laughs to herself as she considers the odds. They had about fifteen sisters, Jeanne included, and Sovya of course, and now the surprise addition of the rest of her friends. Jeanne steals a glance at where her friends are walking, talking amongst themselves quietly. Only two weeks ago they had cast her out, horrified and shocked at Jeanne’s vampiric feeding habits.

And yet, here they are, following her into a castle that promises only death, to help her kill her bastard of a father. Jeanne didn’t think she would ever see them again, but their presence here fills her with a quiet strength, a conviction that she is doing the right thing in taking on this challenge. 

Sovya nudges Jeanne, breaking her from her thoughts. Jeanne looks up at her partner (she still blushes internally at thinking of Sovya as her partner) and smiles gently. She laces her fingers into Sovya’s metal ones and walks quicker, shaking her head to clear her thoughts.

“Sorry, Sovya, I was thinking about… well, you know. It’s all a lot, isn’t it?” Jeanne steals another glance up and she can see a look of fondness on Sovya’s robotic face.

“Of course, Jeanne. We are going to kill your adoptive father, I would say that is quite a lot to think about. You aren’t worried, are you?”

Jeanne shakes her head, then nods. “Well, a little. But now that we’ve got…” she nods her head at her friends (their friends). Kayory and Atticus and Barnaby and Ashes. The friends who haven’t given up on her like so many other people had. “I think our chances just improved.”

Sovya squeezes Jeanne’s hand in theirs and nods. “It will be fine, Jeanne, I’m sure of it.”

They reach the docks, making sure to stay in the shadows, away from both the rising sun and prying eyes. Watching carefully, they see as a line of dark robed figures makes its way onto a looming ship, its sails blackened and tattered. Jeanne tries to make out some of the figures in the line, but decides against identifying any of them. This line is made up of the sisters still loyal to the Duke, on an overseas mission to secure him more land. More power. More of everything. 

That’s why the attack on the castle has to be today. With most of his army of lethal vampire spawn assassins otherwise occupied, the Duke will be as vulnerable as he ever will. The perfect time to strike. It feels almost like fate, as if the very universe itself wants the Duke dead.

The ship departs, and the group watches silently from the shore. When the ship is nothing but a speck against the horizon, they make their way south. Through the rest of the docks and down the coast, skirting the edges of Drown and avoiding the main streets. Eventually the city gives way to dead and blackened countryside, and the castle looms into view. It’s spectacularly ugly, and Jeanne feels sick just at the sight of it. It was to this castle that she was taken as a child, stolen in the middle of the night and brought to see the Duke. He told her he was her father now, and that she would grow up to do great things for him. Now, she clutches the wooden stake in her right hand and curses under her breath.

The group steals their way up to the castle, sneaking carefully around to a side entrance, still concealed by the last shreds of darkness as the sun rises. Once they arrive at a small side door, two sisters turn to quietly address the whole group. Elena and Angelica, the two sisters organizing this attack, with Jeanne of course. Two sisters that had made Jeanne the person she is today, and she gives them her rapt attention as they speak.

Elena steps forward, motioning for everyone to listen. “As we discussed, Angelica and I will be going in first to collect the younger girls. Everyone else stay here until we return. If we are not back out in twenty minutes, head to the front of the castle. And remember, whatever happens here today, no harm must come to these girls. Understood?”

Everyone nods, and Elena opens the door silently. Angelica throws Jeanne a questioning glance, inviting her to come with them, but Jeanne shakes her head imperceptibly. She doesn’t think she can handle seeing all the young girls, stolen and raised as the Duke’s daughters, but not yet old enough to be turned. They would be frightened and confused, as brainwashed by the Duke’s teachings as Jeanne had been when she was little. No, the sight of them in the rooms she used to inhibit might break Jeanne, and she needs all the strength she had for the fight ahead. 

Angelica nods and slips inside after Elena, closing the door behind them. The sisters huddle for warmth in the dawn chill, and Jeanne hugs herself for warmth, nerves already as taut as piano wire. She notices someone coming towards her out of the corner of her eye, and turns to see Atticus approaching her. 

“Jeanne, can I… talk to you? Like, over here?” Atticus’ low drawl sounds concerned, and Jeanne follows him a short distance away from everyone else. “Jeanne, have you… are you sure you want to do this?”

“What?” Jeanne’s face betrays her confusion. “Am I sure? I mean yeah, we’re all here to kill the Duke, that’s what I want. It’s what this whole city needs.”

Atticus nods and continues. “Well I know that, Jeanne, what I’m sayin’ is… are you sure you want to be mortal again? You might be used to a long life now and…” he nods towards Sovya, who has drifted over to talk to Kayory and Ashes. “Now that you’re datin’ an immortal robot… I’m just makin’ sure that you know what you’re doin’.”

Jeanne’s eyes follow Atticus to Sovya. She had been so focused on killing the Duke, so intent on ending the curse on her and her sisters that she hadn’t fully considered the consequences of becoming mortal again. If she was returned to a human lifespan, Sovya would have to watch her die and then continue on for thousands of years, their metallic body rendering them once again alone. Her mind freezes as she thinks about how short human lives are. She is only one hundred now, and her chest feels tight with the knowledge that a mortal end would come all too quickly for her.

And yet, Sovya had supported this plan. Sovya had agreed to kill the Duke and return Jeanne to mortality, knowing full well that this would change their time together from hundreds of years to maybe sixty or seventy. Sovya had agreed because Jeanne said she wanted this. The thought makes Jeanne nearly tear up, and death seems unbearable.

Jeanne looks back at Atticus, who is staring at her gently, questioningly. She wipes a tear from one eye quickly and smiles at him. 

“Thanks, Atticus, I… thank you. I guess I have some thinking to do, and not much time to do it in.”

As if on cue, the door to the castle swings open again, and Elena pokes her head out. After confirming that everyone is still there, she opens the door wide and ushers out a small stream of young girls. The youngest is about seven, and they all clutch their belongings and blink in the early dawn light. They look around nervously as several of the sisters usher them out into the blackened yard. Elena walks over to whisper to one of the sisters, and then nods. The young girls are hurriedly pushed onwards, two sisters breaking off from the rest of the group to return them to the City of Drown, and hopefully their real families. 

Angelica calls out quietly to the rest of the group as the girls disappear towards the city. “All right, that’s taken care of. Now for the main event. Everyone towards the front of the castle. Remember, we strike fast and we strike hard, before the Duke can fly away like the coward he is. Everyone who wants the curse lifted from them needs to hit him at least once. Doesn’t matter if it’s magic or weapons. Jeanne and her group will follow the Duke to his chambers, everyone else will fight in the hall with Elena and I. Here we go!”

The group makes its way to the imposing front doors of the castle, all whispering silenced by the enormity of what they are about to do. Jeanne thinks frantically as they walk. The whole point of killing the Duke was to lift the curse, to rid herself of the vampire qualities that had made Kayory look at her like she was a monster. She wants so desperately to be rid of it, to end the chapter of her life that was characterized by stealing and killing, and being turned away by everyone she had ever dared to love. 

But now that she stares mortality in the face, Jeanne finds the thought of death more frightening than anything else the world could conjure for her.

They pause in front of the great doors of the castle. The statues around it are crumbled, and the front steps are worn. The entire castle is made of a rough dark stone, and blackened ivy creeps into the cracks in the facade. The air is silent around them, and Jeanne can feel the tension in the air before they begin. Sovya places a hand gently on Atticus’ gun, imbuing it with magic. Barnaby loads his crossbow, Kayory tunes his banjo, and Ashes cracks his knuckles, readying a spell. In that moment, Jeanne loves them all so desperately she could burst into tears, but she takes a breath, readying herself. 

Elena and Angelica nod at each other and throw themselves against the doors, pushing in with all their strength and moving aside for the entire group to pour into the main hall. The inside is dark, lit by candles and decorated with somber rugs and tapestries. As Jeanne slips inside she hears conversations stop and sees eyes turn to her. Several sisters, warriors of the Duke’s stolen vampiric army, are scattered around the enormous entry hall. At the other end, Jeanne can see the Duke slowly stand from his throne, flanked by one vampire spawn on each side. He looks shocked, but before he can say anything, Ashes strikes.

The tiefling pushes his way to the front of the group, shouting something unintelligible in Infernal and pointing his finger at a space above the Duke’s head. A ball of radiant daylight blooms in the air over the throne, growing rapidly to engulf the Duke and several of the sisters next to him. Their skin begins smoking immediately, and the Duke lets out an inhuman shriek. The fight has begun.

The entry hall erupts in chaos immediately, with sisters clashing against sisters, and Jeanne and her friends frantically trying to keep the Duke in their sights while fending off his vampiric army. So many weapons and spells are thrown immediately at the Duke that he spins, partially with the force of the attacks on him, and partially with his own transformation. Still screaming and smoking, the Duke’s body disappears, and a single large bat flies away up a large sweeping starwell to the right. 

The plan is for Jeanne’s group to follow him, but the snarling vampire army is upon them in seconds, biting and clawing at whatever they can reach. Barnaby and Ashes break free, heading for the stairs, but Atticus is grabbed from behind. A deadly and beautiful vampire spawn pins him with an iron grip and sinks her teeth into his neck, forcing a gasp of pain from him.

“Jeanne, there’s a- help please!!” 

Jeanne spins around towards him, releasing a jet of flame from her hands at the vampire spawn that holds him. Sensing the attack, the sister with her teeth in Atticus’ neck lurches backwards, wrenching Atticus to the ground on top of her as they avoid the stream of flame. Quickly, Sovya steps towards them, shouting for Atticus to roll over before bringing their warhammer down on the vampire spawn’s torso, its metal surface crackling with lightning. Snarling, the blood crazed sister digs her claws in further, refusing to let go of Atticus. 

At least until Ashes, rounding the corner to head up the staircase, sees Atticus pinned to the ground and fires his longbow, loosing two arrows that embed themselves into the vampire spawn’s arms. She howls and releases Atticus, letting him scramble away and towards the stairs. Kayory follows, strumming his banjo as he spews a stream of shockingly impolite words after the retreating form of the bat. 

Sovya and Jeanne make it to the stairs next, starting to ascend before Sovya is grabbed by another snarling member of the Duke’s army. Again Jeanne tries to save her beloved with a stream of fire, but the fire crashes into the stairwell instead. Atticus turns from his position at the top of the stairs and shoots at the attacker holding Sovya, just as that vampire spawn attempts to bite into Sovya’s neck.

Her teeth make contact with the smooth hard metal of Sovya’s body, and with a whimper, one of her fangs cracks against the resistance. Quickly, Sovya explodes their arms outward, throwing the vampire spawn off of their back to land in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs. They follow Jeanne and Atticus further into the castle, following the Duke up to the highest tower.

Barnaby has made it the farthest by this time, sprinting down the hallway at the top of the main stairwell and ascending another spiral staircase deeper in the castle. He calls out insults as he runs, almost exclusively calling the Duke “ugly”. As he reaches the top of the second staircase, out of breath, he sees another set of double wooden doors, these doors intricately carved with curving branches, goblets, moons, and wolves. This must be the Duke’s chambers, and he wastes no time in heaving the great doors open.

Sure enough, Barnaby sees the Duke standing there, menacing once again in his human form, and staring directly at him. Before he can let himself hope that this scenario wouldn’t awaken anything in him, Barnaby lets loose a gust of magical wind, buffeting the Duke back into the room and slamming him against the far wall. He can’t hold the wind forever though, and as the magic fades, the Duke pushes himself from the wall and dashes across the room towards Barnaby, moving at a frightening otherworldly speed. He stops mere inches from Barnaby’s face and grins wickedly.

“Oh, sweet shit,” Barnaby manages to mutter under his breath. But before the Duke can attack, Ashes bounds up the rest of the stairs and hits the Duke with his mace, knocking the Vampire back into the room. The Duke growls and lashes out, punching Barnaby squarely in the chest before raking his claws over Ashes’ chest. 

Barnaby feels the breath leave his lungs, and doubles down to gasp for air. Grimacing, he grabs the wooden stake from inside his coat and stands again, stepping forward to plunge it into the Duke’s chest. 

Wide eyed, the Duke stumbles, placing a clawed hand gingerly on the wood before hissing and jumping straight upwards, landing upside down on the ceiling of the room. Ashes comes over quickly to check if Barnaby is all right, placing a similar hand on his own scrapes across the chest. 

Barnaby reassures him, saying “I’m fine, sugar, that greasy lookin’ motherfucker didn’t even…” As he speaks, Barnaby looks up at the shadowy figure of the Duke, crawling like a spider on the ceiling. The Duke meets his eyes, and Barnaby feels his words slipping away, feels his mind become cloudy and distant. All he sees are the Duke’s eyes, and he feels a rush of affection and protectiveness for this handsome Vampire. Why is he attacking this beautiful man? Shouldn’t he be protecting him? In fact, shouldn’t he attack the next person to walk in the door?

Ashes sees Barnaby’s eyes cloud over with the Duke’s influence and backs away slowly, mind racing trying to figure out how to break him out of this spell. He sees movement from the hallway outside the Duke’s chambers and freezes when he sees who has appeared at the top of the stairs. Kayory bounds towards the room, banjo in hand, and Ashes feels like he’s in slow motion as Barnaby dreamily turns towards Kayory, loading his crossbow. 

Ashes calls out to Kayory, frantically trying to warn his boyfriend that Barnaby was about to shoot him, but Kayory’s attention is entirely focused on the Duke crawling on the ceiling. Kayory strums a note on his banjo and yells up at the Vampire, trying in his polite Kayory way to insult him closer to death.

“HEY MISTER YOUR BEARD MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE SHAKESPEARE, AND I THINK THAT IT DOESN’T WORK WITH YOUR FACE SHAPE. I THINK YOU SHOULD SHAVE IT, BUT EVEN IF YOU DID YOUR FACE WOULD PROBABLY STILL LOOK WEIR-”

Kayory’s angry rant is cut off by a sudden gasp as one of Barnaby’s crossbow bolts embeds itself into his shoulder. Ashes can see the look in Kayory’s eyes turn from confusion to hurt to fury and he feels an intense surge of emotion for his satyr boyfriend. That feeling of love is paused in its tracks, however, by the next thing Ashes notices. Appearing at the top of the staircase just in time to see Barnaby shoot Kayory are Jeanne and Atticus, their faces turning shocked as they see what’s happening. 

Atticus rushes in, attempting to wrestle the crossbow away from Barnaby, but Barnaby simply shoves him aside, his body mirroring the unnaturally fast speed shown by the Duke. Jeanne looks up at where the Duke is perched, and he meets her eyes with a look of surprise. This would be the perfect time to attack him, to cement the promise of her own mortality, but… she can’t. 

With an inward curse, Jeanne turns to Barnaby and grabs his face, looking into his eyes. “Dammit, Barnaby, I know you’re in there, it’s me, Jeanne! We’re your friends, remember us?” 

Barnaby’s eyes dart around for a second, looking like a wild animal in a cage, until he blinks and shakes his head, and the fogginess in his mind melts away. He looks accusingly at the Duke.

“Aw, goddammit, you stupid son of a BITCH-”

He doesn’t say more, however, as the Duke suddenly drops to the ground again, wincing as the impact jostles the stake in his chest. He strides towards Jeanne, and she holds her ground even though she feels fear fill every inch of her body. She remembers the first time she met the Duke, remembers every reprimand she ever got from him, remembers the sick feeling in her stomach as she realized what he had turned her into. What he had stolen from her. 

In a desperate attempt, Jeanne attempts to charm the Duke, speaking to him earnestly. “It doesn’t have to be like this. We don’t have to kill you!” It’s a lie, but considering the fact that she isn’t going to harm a hair on his head, it feels like only half of a lie.

The Duke stops in front of Jeanne, cocking his head to one side as he looks at her. Up close, he barely looks human. His eyes dilate and contract, and his skin stretches paper thin over sharp bones and even sharper teeth. Jeanne wonders how she could have ever called this monster father.

“Why, Jeanne, this is the first time I’ve seen you in eighty years.” He looks around at the rest of the room, annoyingly nonchalant. “Quite clearly, you and your little friends have come to kill me.”

Without warning, the Duke rears back his hand and slaps Jeanne across the face, sending her tumbling across the room. Her eyes well up as her face stings, but she stumbles into something smooth and familiar. Sovya’s strong metal arms catch Jeanne as she falls into them, and when Jeanne looks up at Sovya’s face, there is pure hatred written across every square inch of it as they stare directly at the Duke. 

Gently, Sovya grabs Jeanne’s shoulders and moves her to the side, out of harm’s way. Then, they stride forward, electricity sparking out from the astrolabe in the center of their chest and wrapping around the metal block of their warhammer. With a furious cry, Sovya swings the hammer and connects with the Duke’s face, sending him sprawling across the coffin in the corner of the room. With a stamp of the hammer’s handle on the ground, Sovya sends a lightning bolt chasing after him, but the Duke rolls away and clamps down on Ashes’ neck.

Crying out, Ashes attempts to stab into the Duke’s chest with his dagger, but only manages to struggle weakly against the force of the Duke’s bite. Atticus fires his gun at the Duke, and jolts when he notices that the lightning bolt sent by Sovya has started a small fire in the corner of the room.

Throwing Ashes aside, the Duke moves towards Kayory, seemingly blood drunk and hungry for more. Kayory is already weak, bleeding from the crossbow bolt to the shoulder, and the Duke drinks dangerously deeply from Kayory’s neck. Barnaby attacks from behind, but he is too late. There is a brief moment of stunned silence as Kayory’s face goes completely pale, and the Duke drops his lifeless body to the floor. 

Ashes screams and rushes towards him, forgetting about everything else happening as the battle continues on around him. He holds Kayory’s bloodless face in his lap, and his mind goes blank. He forgets what he needs to do next. There shouldn’t be a next from this, because this shouldn’t be happening. He and Kayory are supposed to grow old on a farm together, he isn’t supposed to be holding his dead boyfriend and bleeding out on a castle floor. Ashes buries his face in Kayory’s shirt and forces his mind to think. There has to be some way to fix this.

After seeing Kayory go down, Atticus charges forwards, striking at the Duke with his harpoon. Powerful and cocky with the amount of blood he has just drunk, the Duke slaps the harpoon away, arms moving in a blur of supernatural speed. Knocked off balance, Atticus barely has the wherewithal to fire off one shot from his pistol before grabbing the harpoon from the corner. 

The Duke stumbles from an attack from Barnaby behind him, but quickly spins and clamps down on Barnaby’s neck as well. Sovya hesitates, torn between the need to stop the Duke and the immediacy of saving Kayory’s life. Finally, they tear themselves away from the Duke to kneel down next to Kayory’s body. Ashes sits back, giving them room to work. He has seen clerics do their work only rarely, and he stares in awe as Sovya heals. 

Sovya places one hand on Kayory’s chest and one on their own astrolabe chestpiece, which is beginning to glow. Sovya reaches inside their own mind, reaches down to the place where they are beginning to think their soul might reside, and calls upon Brigh to bring Kayory back from the edge of death. The glow spreads down Sovya’s arm, enveloping Kayory’s body in a warm yellow light. Kayory’s eyes blink open, and Ashes sags in relief.

The Duke drops Barnaby, appeased with the amount of blood he has stolen, and turns back towards where Sovya, Kayory, and Ashes are clustered, with Atticus right behind them. Jeanne tries to think of something she can do, some way she can help that won’t inflict direct harm on the Duke, or her mortality will be solidified. She doesn’t have to think very long, because she sees Kayory’s body start moving again.

As Ashes hovers over Kayory, he remembers something with a desperate laugh. Of course. It may not be as strong as Sovya’s deity, but Ashes has healing magic as well. Grabbing Kayory’s outstretched hand, Ashes pulls him to his feet and immediately into a deep kiss, holding Kayory by the waist and feeling the healing spell transfer to Kayory as they embrace. 

The Duke looks disgusted as he turns and takes in the kiss, but before he can move to attack again, Kayory breaks away from Ashes and turns towards him, swinging his banjo around to his front again and pulling out a small silver bell from his belt. Swaying slightly from his near death experience (and the kiss), Kayory nevertheless focuses all his anger at the Duke in front of him. 

“Anyway,” Kayory seethes, ringing his silver bell for emphasis. “Here’s wonderwall.”

The clear tone of the bell echoes around the room as Kayory strums the chords on his banjo, and a dark mist begins to pour from the bell and spin at his feet. Magical daggers crystallize in the air around his head, summoned by the notes emanating from the banjo. As the razor sharp daggers streak towards the Duke, embedding themselves into him, the dark mist forms into animal shapes, circling around Kayory’s feet. 

Three shadowy hellhounds, summoned from the bell and loyal to Kayory alone, launch themselves towards the Duke, barking and snarling as they begin to encircle his legs. The daggers still pour from the air around Kayory, stabbing into the Duke one after the other. The Vampire growls and reaches a claw out towards Kayory, but the circling hellhounds keep him restrained. 

With one more triumphant chord, the last dagger flies straight and true at the Duke, and embeds itself in the blunt end of the wooden stake, driving it all the way through the Vampire’s heart, and out the other side. 

The Duke freezes, choking on the sudden taste of death. His already withered skin begins to shrink, splitting over yellowed bones and crumbling to ash and black flame as his ancient body implodes on itself with a soul wrenching scream. Everyone in the room shields their eyes from the burst of darkness that engulfs the Duke, and then just like that, he is gone. 

In the silence, Jeanne feels her heart lurch inside of her. Her last shot at a mortal life, disintegrated in front of her eyes. Only time will tell if she has made the right choice. She holds one hand to her chest, feels her heart beating wildly. 

As the last burnt vampire flakes fall to the ground, there is one last burst of activity. Kayory sways and leans into Ashes, and Sovya immediately focuses their medical attention on him. Barnaby picks himself up from where the Duke had dropped him, and Atticus makes a beeline for Jeanne.

“Hey there, are you… smile for me, Jeanne. Your teeth, are they…”

Jeanne smiles grimly, showing Atticus her teeth, pointy and dangerous as always. Atticus nods, trying to find the words to say. “So you chose, then.”

Jeanne holds a hand to her stomach, trying to settle her racing mind. “Yeah, I suppose I did.”

Sovya stands, satisfied that Kayory won’t drop dead anytime soon, and immediately rushes to Jeanne’s side. They gently take Jeanne’s face in their hands, staring first into her red eyes, then down at her sharp incisors. Their face changes, and they look at Jeanne, confused.

“Are you changing, you look the same! Did you land a blow on the Duke, I thought you…” They trail off as they see Jeanne’s expression. “You didn’t. You didn’t harm him, and now the curse… why, Jeanne?”

Jeanne shrugs, resting her face against Sovya’s smooth metal hands. “We did what we came here to do. The Duke is dead, maybe that’s all I wanted out of this. Or maybe I changed my mind.”

Sovya looks concerned, but they don’t drop their hands from Jeanne’s face. “The curse will remain unbroken, then. Are you okay with being like this? Maybe not forever, but for a very long time?”

Gently, Jeanne brings a hand up to rest it on top of Sovya’s. “You know, I never thought much of eternity. It’s not much of anything when you have no one to spend it with. But now that, well…” Jeanne feels herself flushing. “Now that I’ve got you, Sovya, eternity might not be so bad.”

Jeanne lifts her eyes to meet Sovya’s, but before she can lose her nerve and blurt out something else, Sovya is kissing her. More than that, Sovya is picking Jeanne up and twirling her around, and yet continuing to give her the deepest and strongest kiss she has ever felt. She feels lightheaded with joy and laughs against Sovya’s mouth, throwing her hands behind their head to pull them closer. 

Atticus crosses his arms and smiles at them, while Kayory and Barnaby argue in the background over how sorry Barnaby should be for shooting Kayory while hypnotized, but Jeanne barely notices any of it. Curse or no curse, mortality or no mortality, whatever happens next, Jeanne feels as if everything might finally be alright.


End file.
